Dean Paton

I am the founder and Managing Director of Big Heritage, having created the company in 2010 to address a need to bring people closer together with their shared heritage. My role in the company is very much focussed around ideas creation and using heritage as a tool to create, connect and inspire communities. Whilst some of my peers may disagree, I think heritage has more to do with understanding people in the present day as interpreting the past.

After an early career in the world of beer and wine (now just a hobby!), I headed off to Chester University where I was awarded a first-class degree in archaeology. This was followed by a master’s degree in landscape archaeology at Oxford University. The idea for Big Heritage was born out of this university environment, which bubbled with academic inspiration, but rarely offered means of sharing learning with the average person in the street.

I am a board member for Chester Growth Partnership, a visiting lecturer at University of Chester and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. I am a lifelong Everton season-ticket holder, and have two lovely kids.

Favourite Historic Site/Monument: I have happy memories of a warm summer digging in Forteviot in Scotland and St John’s Church in Chester is pretty awesome.

Favourite Find: Not an artefact, but a very old estate map discovered in the loft of an eccentric landowner, stuck in a drawer that contained original paintings by Rossetti. The painting was nothing compared to the lovely map!